X32 routing question

[BigYinUK]

Hi folks.

 

On Saturday I did some work with another band using an X32. The scenario was as follows:

 

They use an X32 full console connected via AES50 to an X32 Producer. They use the producer for their 16ins and 8outs and also to control their IEM mixes (wifi to mobile phones). They do it this way as the main X32 is frequently too far away from the stage to give a reliable wifi connection.

 

This time, we needed additional inputs and outputs, so the "plan" was to connect a S16 to the AES50 out on the Producer to give us 32 ins and 16 outs and route the channels accordingly from the main X32.

 

It looked like this: X32 ---> Producer ---> S16.

 

It sounded logical to me but didn't work. The main X32 never saw the additional ins or outs. Although the green leds were on indicating sync etc. The routing looked correct to me.

 

We moved things round so it looked like this: X32 ---> S16 ---> Producer, and all the ins and outs on the Producer disappeared, just the S16 worked.

 

In the end we connected the AES50/B on the main X32 to the S16 with a separate Cat6 cable, re-routed the inputs and outputs to AES50/B and everything was of course fine, although we only had a short cable so had to use long XLRs down the venue to get to the stage.

 

Should it be doable X32 ---> Producer ---> S16 to give 32ins, 16outs ? The engineer said he'd tried before but never managed to get things to work.

 

Regards

 

Jon

[themadhippy]

isnt each ae50 line limited to 24 channels each way

[Simon Lewis]

We happily run two S16s on one cable....

[dbuckley]

Cascading through an S16 works, as Simon notes, I also routinely do this. What happens is that in the S16, the incoming AES channel number is bumped up by sixteen, or, as the diagram shows it, two lots of eight channels, like in this (annoyingly right-to-left) diagram from the manual:

 

http://davidbuckley.name/pix/x32_s16_cascades.jpg

 

Note that A must go to the mixer (ie it's the output), and B is the incoming whatever. This also works using a X32Rack as a stagebox.

 

The X32 doesn't have a cascade feature, but it does have routing, so if an X32 is in the middle, and has 16 local inputs you want to use, you could configure as this:

 

http://davidbuckley.name/pix/x32_x32_as_intermediate.jpg

 

This will send the Producer's mic pres out on AES 1-16, and the S16 will be on channels 17 to 32. Because there is routing you can change, you can choose to go either way, and I've chosen B as the output and A as the input, just because I mouse clicked that way.

 

I'm basing this as the Producer being about the same as the Compact and Rack, which are the 16 input units I have experience of.

 

AES50 as implemented by Berry can have 48 channels in each direction. I don't know offhand if that is a Berry choice, or an architectural feature.

[Stuart91]

They do it this way as the main X32 is frequently too far away from the stage to give a reliable wifi connection.

 

Why not just use a CAT5 line from the mix position back to the stage, and sit a wifi access point on stage?

[themadhippy]

AES50 as implemented by Berry can have 48 channels in each direction.

My mistake,I was getting confused with its bigger cousin,but thats running at 96khz ,so half of what the berry can do.